Power and Need in Africa (1988) examines the mechanisms for giving the poor of Africa the means to develop their own future – a renaissance which has as its constituent elements environmental sustainability, women’s emancipation and social justice.

This book is a festschrift in tribute to Ben Wisner’s contributions to disaster studies and adjacent fields of scholarship such as political ecology, development and sustainability.This festschrift for Ben, and so The Benschrift, revitalises, promotes and critiques a selection of six foundational articles that span Ben’s 50-year career. Each article is reproduced integrally and followed by a commentary by an expert in the field and a response from Ben. As a result, this book not on...

The term 'natural disaster' is often used to refer to natural events such as earthquakes, hurricanes or floods. However, the phrase 'natural disaster' suggests an uncritical acceptance of a deeply engrained ideological and cultural myth. At Risk questions this myth and argues that extreme natural events are not disasters until a vulnerable group of people is exposed.The updated new edition confronts a further ten years of ever more expensive and deadly disasters and discus...

There is a perennial gap between theory and practice, between academia and active professionals in the field of disaster management. This gap means that valuable lessons are not learned and people die or suffer as a result. This book opens a dialogue between theory and practice. It offers vital lessons to practitioners from scholarship on natural hazards, disaster risk management and reduction and developments studies, opening up new insights in accessible language with practical applicati...

Published with ProVention Consortium, UNDP and UN-Habitat'This excellent book is essential reading for those concerned with urban risk and its reduction in Africa, the most rapidly urbanizing region of the world.'Professor Jo Beall, Development Studies Institute, London School of Economics'At last a book that recognizes the impacts of disasters on Africa's 350 million urban dwellers, including the many disasters that get overlooked and go unrecorded. But also a book ...

The Handbook provides a comprehensive statement and reference point for hazard and disaster research, policy making, and practice in an international and multi-disciplinary context. It offers critical reviews and appraisals of current state of the art and future development of conceptual, theoretical and practical approaches as well as empirical knowledge and available tools.Organized into five inter-related sections, this Handbook contains sixty-five contribution...

'The big, era-defining questions and, at last, the subtle, tenable answers, teased out without clich or compromise. A vital volume at a critical moment.'Dr Augustus Casely-Hayford, Director, Africa '05'This book dispels the myth of a uniformly hopeless, hungry continent. It shows just how extraordinarily diverse Africa is and how much it has changed in the last 20 years.Full of fresh thinking on problems that face Africa and new African approaches to development.'Rich...

In Understanding and Addressing Disaster Risk, the authors explain how people modify the environment and exert power over each other in ways that make nature potentially harmful and put people in harm’s way. Opportunities and challenges faced by those engaging with disaster risk are explored.Across 11 chapters, the authors show that disasters are not natural, are not events, and do not happen quickly. Instead, they are the result of chronic societal processes emerging from...

This new edition of From Poverty to Power has been fully revised and now includes a new chapter with an in-depth analysis of the human impact of the global financial and food crises. From Poverty to Power argues that a radical redistribution of power, opportunities, and assets rather than traditional models of charitable or government aid is required to break the cycle of poverty and inequality. The forces driving this transformation are active citizens and effective states. Why active cit...

As climate change and extreme weather events increasingly threaten traditional landscapes and livelihoods of entire communities the need to study its impact on human migration and population displacement has never been greater.The Atlas of Environmental Migration is the first illustrated publication mapping this complex phenomenon. It clarifies terminology and concepts, draws a typology of migration related to environment and climate change, describes the multiple factors ...

Loss of biodiversity is one of the great environmental challenges facing humanity but unfortunately efforts to reduce the rate of loss have so far failed. At the same time, these efforts have too often resulted in unjust social outcomes in which people living in or near to areas designated for conservation lose access to their territories and resources. In this book the author argues that our approach to biodiversity conservation needs to be more strongly informed by a concern for and unde...

Development Geography is an informative and vibrant introductory level text, with a wealth of contrasting case-studies and illustrations. Written to stimulate critical thought and discussion about development, it does not assume any clear-cut distinction between 'developed' and 'developing' parts of the world. Case-studies highlight the problems and possible solutions at local, national and international scales. These include:* food production in Senegal* Disney in C...